SATAN TRIUMPHANT: THE BLACK DEATH

 

I.                  Arrival of Plague in Europe

a.    Hazardous Cargo from the Black Sea (Oct. 1347)

b.    Two forms of Plague

                                                             i.      Infection of Blood Stream

                                                          ii.      Pneumonic Phase

c.     Giovanni Boccaccio and Florence

II.              Death Across Europe

a.    Death in the Cities

b.    No Social Distinctions

c.     Death Rates – 30-60%

d.   Run Away! – Flee infected areas

e.     Death in the Countryside

III.          Fleas and Rats – Origins of the Plague

a.    Yersina Pestis – Plague Bacillus

b.    Plague from the East – Mongol Invasions

c.     Spreading the Disease – Rattus Rattus and Shipping Lanes

d.   Wrath of God

e.     Collective Guilt

IV.          Coping with the Plague

a.    Physical Treatments

b.    Scapegoats – Jews

                                                             i.      Eternal Outsiders

                                                          ii.      4th Lateran Council (1215)

                                                       iii.      Persecution of Jews

                                                       iv.      Extermination of Jewish Communities

c.     Flagellant Movement (1348-1350)

                                                             i.      Processions of Sinners

                                                          ii.      33 ½ Days of Flagellation

                                                       iii.      Conflict with Rome – Pope Clement VI

 

The Renaissance: Roots of European Hegemony

 

I.                  World Economic Systems (13th – 15th centuries)

A.     Dominant Systems

1.       Indian Ocean

2.       Silk Route

3.       Trans-Saharan Trade Route

B.      The Late-Comer: Europe

1.       Economic and Military  Inferiority

2.       Cultural Backwater

II.               Rebirth in Europe: the Renaissance

A.     The New Style in Painting: Perspective

1.       Realism and Ordinary People

2.       Viewer as Focus of Image

B.      Man in the Cosmos

1.       Earthly Matters

2.       God vs. Human-centered world

C.     The Revival of Classical Learning – Autodidacts in Love

1.          Petrach (1304-1374)

2.          Boccacio (1313-1376)

III.           The “Renaissance Man”

A.      Defining a Renaissance Man – Universal Education

B.        Renaissance Men:

1.       Leonardo Da Vinci – Saper Vedere: “Know how to see”

2.       Shakespeare – Drama and Comedy Imitates Human Life

IV.           Renaissance Society (I): Progress and Expansion

A.     Spreading the Word: Gutenberg and the Printing Press

1.          Cotton Rag Paper (From China with Love)

2.          Propagation of the Classics and Renaissance culture

B.      Renaissance Cities and Nation-States

1.     (Re)growing Cities, Wars, and Economic Power

2.     Technological Advancements and the “Sense of Progress”

V.              Renaissance Society (II): Religious Piety and Despotism

A.        Vlad Dracula “The Impaler” (1456-1462)

B.          Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)

C.         Black Slave Trade (1402-late 1700s)